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Legislative Report By Sen. Ralph Metchalf |
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Tuesday, 20 March 2007 |
By Sen. Ralph Metchalf, Dist 24
Delayed does not mean slowed. In most cases, especially when we in the legislature talk about a "delayed bill," it usually means a bill that was late in being submitted to the assembly and because of that it will be rushed through the law-making process.
A delayed bill was filed in the Senate to have impact on the construction or delay of construction of a new building for the Veterans’ Home in Lisbon. The current building is condemned because of safety problems.
With the help of the leadership from the Senate and the House, the bill was hurried through the ordinary process so that it could have its first hearing early Monday morning, March 19. The bill is really very simple and only a few sentences long but it does authorize the money for the construction of the Veterans Home.
On first glance, this is very good. However, knowing a little bit about the working of the legislature it may also be a vehicle for making changes to the future operation of the home that may be completely different from the original intent.
The bill could be changed to eliminate some beds that are currently authorized to place them in another facility that may have more demand as determined by legislators from those areas.
The needs of veterans could be totally overlooked and beds distributed through several nursing homes, again where there appears to be more need. There may be an effort to reduce the number of veterans served in Lisbon to make the home ineffective looking toward the eventual possibility of closing it.
There is a thought of not building a new building and just repairinmg it as much as possible, even if this would mean a reduction in the number of veterans served. Any remodeling will definitely reduce the number of rooms available as the size of the rooms will be smaller in those areas where construction is required.
A number of other deficiencies that will have to be corrected at the same time as the rebuilding which includes additional bathing facilities for females, wider hallways, private pharmacy space, and increased space for medical treatment just to name a few.
Overall, in my opinion, it makes little sense to remodel at this time when we could build a new facility with the Veterans’ Administration paying 65 percent.
Several area legislators are currently working with the State Historical Society to access ownership of a former missile control site a few miles north of Cooperstown. The original bill asking for $250,000 for this purpose was defeated by the House of Representative by one vote. Since then, local legislators have been working to place the authorization into another bill and through conversation with party leaders it is felt that this could be accomplished and the bill approved.
We still have the major concerns about the needs of K-12 education, higher education and property taxes and for the most part, I believe that Larry, Phil and I have your desires close in our minds and we will continue to fight for your needs. K-12 will be exceptionally difficult as needs definitely vary according to size and location of school districts but we will do the best we can.
Thank you to the fine people from Enderlin that came to our Forum on March 17. Keep close tabs on your legislative activity for the next several weeks because now is the time that bills can change rapidly. There is no forum on Mar 24 but we definitely look forward to seeing you in Lisbon at the 4Gs on March 31. Things will really be hopping by then. See you then and God bless.
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 05 December 2007 )
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